ESPN had a final household coverage rating of 5.1 for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, a 3 percent increase from last year’s 4.9. Household impressions were 4,888,964, up 5 percent from last year’s 4,657,433. Viewership 6,667,729, up 1 percent from last year’s 6,573,536. This race is ESPN’s most-viewed auto race ever. The NASCAR Nationwide Series from IRP event was on ESPN and had a final rating of 1.5, up 6 percent from last year’s 1.4 on ESPN2. For NNS season on cable (ESPN and ESPN2), they are up 17 percent from last year (not including the California race that was rain-delayed and run on Monday). This report came from ESPN.
That’s the good news. Now here’s the bad news. The fans and Tony George of IMS are ripping both NASCAR and Goodyear for the tire debacle in the Allstate 400. Competition yellow flags came out almost every ten laps until the race went checkered. When something similar happened at The Brickyard during a F1 event, Michelin coughed up some ticket deals to smooth over the fans and George for the following year. We don’t expect Goodyear to do the same thing as Michelin
Formula One teams have agreed to create an association to safeguard their interests. According to F1 team, Ferrari all 10 current F1 teams have agreed to join the association, which will meet with the sport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the commercial rights holders to draw up a new framework for the sport. The move comes as FIA gets ready to introduce significant rule changes from as early as 2009.
In a statement to the press, Ferrari said that the meeting at its headquarters was ‘extremely constructive.’ The team provided no details except that the meeting had produced a unanimous decision to establish a new ‘Formula 1 Teams Association’ to work with FIA and Formula One Management “to agree upon regulations and commercial conditions which will provide a framework for a strong and dynamic sport.”
The FIA said last month that it would enter a “wide-ranging consultation” with the teams to review the governance of the sport as well as future technical regulations. This report came from SportsBusiness.com.
It’s rare that the F1 cars go to a new circuit and don’t get a chance to test before hand. In two weeks the European GP goes to a new venue a street race in Valencia, Spain. All that gives the race some suspense and results in the electronic and print media have a lot to talk and write about. F1 has been lively, lately, because it’s not one team dominating that exclusive “techy” series.
In spite of declining auto sales, the worst in a decade, Ford, GM and Chrysler have decided to stick with NASCAR in an effort to sell their vehicles in the showrooms by maintaining a presence on that circuit. All have new more fuel-efficient cars in the works. The only question we have how will they integrate these new vehicles into the racing arena? Some think that it’s the same old marketing strategy “run them on Sunday and sell them on Monday. But we’ve seen comments like the COT is like nothing in the showrooms. We can agree with that. But, it appears that the prevailing wisdom is-having a presence in motorsports is better than not having one.
Let’s see what’s on the tube this weekend for gear head action. On Friday it’s noon Practice for the Cup Series at Watkins Glen, NY on ESPN2. ESPN2/TSN offer Cup Qualifying at 3 p.m. from The Glen. At 8 p.m. Speed airs the Grand-Am Series event held at Watkin’s Glen, NY.
Saturday starts off at 10 a.m. with ESPN/TSN both airing Nationwide Qualifying at 10 a.m. ESPN2 comes back at 1:30 p.m. with Sprint Cup Final Practice from The Glen. At 3 p.m. it’s the Nationwide event from The Glen on ESPN2. Speed kicks in with the ARCA/REMax Series from Nashville at 4:30 p.m. ESPN2/TSN return at 6:30 p.m. with the IRL Indy Car Series from Kentucky. At 7:30 p.m. Speed offers the Craftsman Truck Series from Nashville. The Duce returns at 8:30 p.m. with NHRA Qualifying from Brainerd, MN. The World of Outlaws will be center stage with the Knoxville Nationals from Iowa at 10 p.m. on Speed.
Sunday has ESPN/TSN offering the NASCAR Cup race from The Glen at 2 p.m. At the same time Speed airs the American LeMans Series from Road America from Elkhart Lake, Wisc. ESPN2 returns at 7 p.m. with the NHRA Finals from Brainerd, MN. (END)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHERSOURCES
